Because of a late plane coming from Denver
International Airport, a standing-room-only crowd of 150 waited
nearly two hours at an air summit meeting in Grand Junction, Colo.,
for DIA officials to show. Once over the Rockies, DIA reps heard a
list of woes from regional airport managers: sky-high fares,
unreliable service and bumped ticket-holders because of
overbookings – problems blamed mostly on the monopoly held by
United Airlines in Denver and its in-state carrier. That monopoly
was created when Continental Airlines pulled out of Denver and a
commuter airline also abandoned the region, both citing the high
cost of operating out of DIA (HCN,
1/23/95).
Colorado Gov. Roy Romer said that
although he couldn’t support subsidies to regional airlines, he did
look with favor on new airlines starting up. He also conceded that
building DIA could have been delayed for five or more years,
although complaints from neighbors about noise “made it
inevitable.”
Meanwhile, representatives from
booming airports in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs, Colo.,
said they were expanding to meet the needs of dropouts from pricey
DIA.
*Betsy
Marston
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline DIA hears from some critics.
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